Beer Built This City

Cover of Jordan St. John's <em>Lost Breweries of Toronto</em> (The History Press, 2014)<br />
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In <em>Lost Breweries</em>, St. John shows a knack for unearthing small stories and details about forgotten breweries and their owners, including the following.

Cover of Jordan St. John's <em>Lost Breweries of Toronto</em> (The History Press, 2014).

Cover of Jordan St. John’s Lost Breweries of Toronto (The History Press, 2014).

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The John Severn Brewery, on the northeast corner of Yonge and Church/Davenport streets, ca. 1870s. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-4853&R=DC-PICTURES-R-4853">Digital Collection</a>. <br />
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When Yorkville was incorporated in 1852, John Severn, whose brewery was located at Yonge and Davenport, was elected one of the first members of the five-person town council. The <a href="http://www.beintoronto.com/Yorkville-History-Toronto-Neighbourhood-Bloor-Real-Estate-Condos.html">town's coat-of-arms</a>, which featured iconography representing each of the first councillors' professions, therefore included a beer barrel for Severn.

Toronto Brewing & Malting Company as depicted on P.A. Gross' <a href="http://torontoist.com/2010/04/historicist_cartographic_civic_pride/">Lithographic Bird's Eye View of Toronto</a>, 1876. From the University of Toronto's <a href="http://maps.library.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/datainventory.pl?idnum=947&display=full">Map and Data Library</a>. <br />
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Founded by John Aldwell, a teetotaller, in the early 1850s, the Toronto Brewing & Malting Company grew into the largest such operation in the country. When Ontario prohibited alcohol in the early twentieth century, the company kept afloat by making vinegar instead of beer.

Staff from the O'Keefe Brewery Company, located at the southwest corner of Gould and Victoria streets, 1890s. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-692&R=DC-PICTURES-R-692">Digital Collection</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://torontoist.com/2013/09/historicist-torontos-catholic-beer-baron/">Eugene O'Keefe</a> used his wealth to build St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough. Charles Millar, one of three businessmen who took over the O'Keefe Brewery Company after the founder's death in 1913 took a decidedly different approach to philanthropy. Millar bequeathed in his will one company share to every Protestant clergyman in the city. <br />
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Later still the O'Keefe Brewery would become the cornerstone's of E.P. Taylor's Canadian Breweries conglomerate.

Staff from the O’Keefe Brewery Company, located at the southwest corner of Gould and Victoria streets, 1890s. From the Toronto Public Library’s Digital Collection.
Eugene O’Keefe used his wealth to build St. Augustine’s Seminary in Scarborough. Charles Millar, one of three businessmen who took over the O’Keefe Brewery Company after the founder’s death in 1913 took a decidedly different approach to philanthropy. Millar bequeathed in his will one company share to every Protestant clergyman in the city.
Later still the O’Keefe Brewery would become the cornerstone’s of E.P. Taylor’s Canadian Breweries conglomerate.

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Detail from a sketch of an irregular lot for the Brewer of York, drawn by Sir David William Smith, 1800. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-OHQ2-MAP-S-R-019&R=DC-OHQ2-MAP-S-R-019">Digital Collection</a>.<br />
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Robert Henderson's brewery, probably the first to open in York, occupied a half-acre lot on Taddle Creek, at the northeast corner of Sherbourne and Richmond in about 1800. By 1809, the brewery was producing thirty barrels of ale per week.

Detail from a sketch of an irregular lot for the Brewer of York, drawn by Sir David William Smith, 1800. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-OHQ2-MAP-S-R-019&R=DC-OHQ2-MAP-S-R-019">Digital Collection</a>.

Detail from a sketch of an irregular lot for the Brewer of York, drawn by Sir David William Smith, 1800. From the Toronto Public Library’s Digital Collection.

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Cosgrave & Company, Malts Brewers and Bottlers, at Queen and Niagara streets, as depicted on P.A. Gross' <a href="http://torontoist.com/2010/04/historicist_cartographic_civic_pride/">Lithographic Bird's Eye View of Toronto</a>, 1876. From the University of Toronto's <a href="http://maps.library.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/datainventory.pl?idnum=947&display=full">Map and Data Library</a>.<br />
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The Cosgrave Brewery, located on the Garrison Creek and rebuilt after a fire in 1878, had a top-of-the-line bottling facility and exported its products as far afield as the West Indies, Australia, and South Africa.

Watercolour of the John Farr Brewery, on Queen Street West, by Owen Staples in ca. 1912. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-6089&R=DC-PICTURES-R-6089">Digital Collection</a>. <br />
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Farr and his brother operated through vertical integration, controlling (and profiting from) all aspects of production and sale from farm to tavern. Although their brewery, on the banks of Garrison Creek, was well outside the city core, the Farrs had a steady clientele from the soldiers at Fort York about a half-mile to the south.

W. Copland's East Toronto Brewery as depicted on P.A. Gross' <a href="http://torontoist.com/2010/04/historicist_cartographic_civic_pride/">Lithographic Bird's Eye View of Toronto</a>, 1876. From the University of Toronto's <a href="http://maps.library.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/datainventory.pl?idnum=947&display=full">Map and Data Library</a>. <br />
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The William Simon Brewery, a Buffalo operation forced to shut down during Prohibition in the United States, bought the Copland Brewery in 1927. Besides being able to keep in business catering to the Ontario market, the American owners hoped to be able to immediately flood the U.S. with beer if and when the Volstead Act was repealed while their competition was still trying to return to production.

Watercolour of the Joseph Bloor [or Bloore] Brewery, north of Bloor Street East between Mount Pleasant Road and Sherbourne Street, painted by Richard Baigent, 1865. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-4798&R=DC-PICTURES-R-4798">Digital Collection</a>.<br />
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To secure access to water, Bloor [or Bloore] constructed a dam that created a large pond that grew to several acres in size—and said to stretch all the way to Yonge—during the spring runoff. Local youth took advantage of the pond year-round for swimming and skating.

Thomas Davies & Brothers, Maltsters (sic) Brewers & Bottlers, located at Queen Street East and River Street, as depicted in <em><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/illustrtoronto00timpuoft">Illustrated Toronto</a></em> (1877).<br />
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The Davies Brewery—the old Don Brewery under new ownership—was the first Toronto brewery to accept unionized workers. In 1904, when workers walked off the job for six weeks demanding better work hours and higher wages—and temporarily allied themselves with the temperance movement in the process—the Davies Brewery was the only one operating at full capacity.

Thomas Davies & Brothers, Maltsters (sic) Brewers & Bottlers, located at Queen Street East and River Street, as depicted in Illustrated Toronto (1877).

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Blacksmith shop at the corner of Richmond and Sherbourne streets, as drawn by Owen Staples in 1910s. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-2891&R=DC-PICTURES-R-2891">Digital Collection</a>. <br />
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This structure, which had once served as the malt house and granary of one of Toronto's first breweries, was later used as a storage shed by the Walz Brewery beginning in the late 1850s.

Doel's residence and brewery on the northwest corner of Adelaide and Bay streets as it appeared in the 1840s. Sketch drawn by Owen Staples in 1888. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-2120&R=DC-PICTURES-R-2120">Digital Collection</a>. <br />
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John Doel's brewery, located behind his residence, burned down in 1847. The Methodist Church, of which Doel was a member, used the brewer's philanthropic donations to build the city's first Temperance Hall among other endeavours.

Doel’s residence and brewery on the northwest corner of Adelaide and Bay streets as it appeared in the 1840s. Sketch drawn by Owen Staples in 1888. From the Toronto Public Library’s Digital Collection.
John Doel’s brewery, located behind his residence, burned down in 1847. The Methodist Church, of which Doel was a member, used the brewer’s philanthropic donations to build the city’s first Temperance Hall among other endeavours.

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Reinhardt Brewery Company, northwest corner of Mark Street and Don Roadway West, after its fire, 1957. From the Toronto Public Library's <a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-1469&R=DC-PICTURES-R-1469">Digital Collection</a>.<br />
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The first brewer in Toronto to possess a formal education as a brewmaster was Lothar Reinhardt, who after studying in Germany worked in at breweries in Paris, Milwaukee, and Toronto before purchasing the East End Brewery in 1888. His operation significantly broadened the varieties of beer available in Toronto by selling a Bavarian lager, a seasonal Bock, and Hofbrau.

Dominion Breweries on Queen Street East, June 1981. From the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1526, File 75, Item 25. <br />
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Robert Davies, Thomas' youngest brother, founded his own company, Dominion Brewery, in 1878. After his India Pale Ale, Amber Ale, and XXX Porter won international awards in 1885, Davies advertised the honours on the bottle labels for years, eventually even replacing the I.P.A. label with a facsimile of the award certificate for a time. <br />
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Like the O'Keefe Brewery, Dominion Brewery was eventually acquired by E.P. Taylor's conglomerate.

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As the owner of one of Toronto’s largest breweries, Eugene O’Keefe was an unexpected but genuine supporter of the temperance movement. The brewer and philanthropist felt that cheap whiskey was taking a toll on the city’s working class—his Irish brethren in particular. In the late 1870s, O’Keefe had switched to producing lager on a massive scale, self-consciously intending it—a product with 3.5 or 4.0 per cent alcohol—as a more temperate alternative to the locally brewed ales containing 6.5 or higher per cent alcohol. “You might have been able to get drunk on Toronto’s nineteenth-century lager,” Jordan St. John writes in Lost Breweries of Toronto (The History Press, 2014), “but you would have had to work at it.”

When O’Keefe articulated his belief that “the consumption of lager beer and light non-intoxicating liquors” was the solution to the temperance question in testimony before a public inquiry in 1893, however, he was asked the impact prohibition would have on his business. “Why, bless your soul, it would be ruinous,” he admitted with a sense of humour.

O’Keefe’s quirky understanding of temperance is but one of the episodes St. John has uncovered in his engaging and illuminating Lost Breweries of Toronto. In it, the nationally syndicated beer columnist traces the history of nearly 20 of the city’s breweries, covering more than two centuries from when the town was a mere outgrowth of Fort York to the mid-20th century, when E.P. Taylor consolidated control of the independent breweries under the banner of Canadian Breweries Limited banner.

In Lost Breweries, St. John shows a knack for unearthing anecdotes that are both entertaining and insightful—including those contained in the adjoining gallery. There’s the Ontario Brewery, whose facility at the corner of York and Front streets went aflame in 1856. Afterward there were complaints that volunteers had broken open barrels of beer in the vault instead of fighting the fire.

There’s Toronto Brewing and Malting Company, which, when it needed a popular beer to re-launch its brand after Ontario repealed prohibition in 1927, launched Canada Bud. The lager was so much like Anheuser-Busch’s flagship brand that the Toronto brewery was almost immediately and successfully sued—and was ordered by the courts to pay the American company $500 in damages.

And there’s the Copland Brewery, whose sales, during the patriotic fervour of the Second World War, were negatively impacted by its American ownership. Copland’s solution was to launch Pat’s Stock Ale in honour of the company’s brewmaster, Pat Wismer, a decorated war hero in the First World War. If the brewery’s intention wasn’t already clear enough, the beer’s label featured not only the Union Jack and Ontario’s Red Ensign flags, but also a maple leaf and a statement that it was “made by 100% Canadians.”

Staff from the O’Keefe Brewery Company, located at the southwest corner of Gould and Victoria streets, 1890s. From the Toronto Public Library’s Digital Collection.

Mining original sources like the Royal Gazette, business directories, and diaries or corporate records where available—a truly admirable amount of heavy lifting—St. John is able to straighten out errors of dates and details found in earlier secondary accounts of Ontario’s brewing history. Moreover, he’s able to dissect what made breweries thrive or fail and capture the personalities running them—though he sometimes runs up against the limitations of his sources. As a brewer and certified Cicerone himself, the author’s knowledge of varieties of malt and hops and production methods allows him, at times, to suggest how a long-lost brew might have tasted from a mere list of ingredients.

In Lost Breweries, the author teases out interesting anecdotes and weaves them into larger stories, establishing common themes. One such theme is the importance of location to the success of early brewers, with the breweries all located on streams or waterways to provide a source of water. But ready access to customers was equally important. In Toronto’s earliest years, where Fort York’s soldiers chose to spend their beer money allowance or stipend could make or break a brewery.

Another theme links brewers to patterns of immigration. First English immigrants, like John Farr or Joseph Bloore, and later German immigrants, like John Walz—who introduced Torontonians to lager in the late 1850s—found that the operation of a brewery as a successful business afforded them a degree of social mobility in Toronto that was unavailable in the Old World. Here, they could build their brewing business, accrue land and wealth, diversify into other enterprises and holdings, and become civic leaders and pillars of the community.

St. John also explores how several early brewers used the profits and status that came from selling beer to build and develop the city itself. A few early brewers were devoted Methodists and philanthropists, such as Dr. Thomas Stoyell, who operated one of the very first breweries, at Sherbourne and Richmond streets, and John Doel, whose operation was behind his house at Bay and Adelaide streets. Both donated significant sums to the church, which spent the funds on temperance initiatives—the primary focus of Methodist ministrations.

Other early brewers made their mark by taking an active role in politics. Many sought public office as reformers, though some had more mixed motives. That Thomas Davies Jr., as an alderman, helped establish Riverdale Park, was undoubtedly positive—as St. John tells us—but it also had the roll-off benefit of preventing anyone from ever opening a competing brewery adjacent to his own Don Brewery at Queen East and River Street.

Doel’s residence and brewery on the northwest corner of Adelaide and Bay streets as it appeared in the 1840s. Sketch drawn by Owen Staples in 1888. From the Toronto Public Library’s Digital Collection.

Lost Breweries whets the reader’s appetite for more. Given how much Toronto’s landscape has changed, with waterways realigned or bricked up as sewers, the inclusion of a map clearly locating each brewery discussed would have been most helpful. In addition to copious archival photos, illustrations, and paintings of the breweries discussed, St. John shares a sampling of product labels. He offers some insight into the styles and evolution of bottle labels—evolving from elks, beavers, and maple leaves to Lothar Reinhardt’s logo showing a hand clutching a foaming pint glass—and how the packaging of beer became more important than content as the 20th century progressed. The topic is treated as an aside, however—discussed mostly in photo captions—when more thorough discussion would have been rewarding.

The downside for Lost Breweries is that, as a result of the book’s structure—with stand-alone chapters on each brewery—the book can be a bit episodic, with themes appearing in flashes across various chapters rather than full discussed and developed. There are mentions, for example, of how the varieties of beer brewed and techniques involved at particular companies evolved—as a result of taxes or duties affecting the price of ingredients, government legislation, and the personal preferences of either the brewmaster or the customers. But an additional, contextual chapter putting these isolated details together would have given a full picture of the local industry as a whole and how it fit broader trends. More of that, it seems, is to be found in the also recently published Ontario Beer: A Heady History of Brewing from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay (The History Press, 2014), which St. John co-authored with Alan McLeod.

What St. John does do in Lost Breweries—that is, provide capsule histories of nearly forgotten breweries and their owners—he does quite well, and he digs up lively anecdotes to keep the proceedings interesting.